The Dangerous Reality of Drink Spiking

About 1 in 13 college students in a new study from three U.S. campuses report having been drugged, or suspect that they were drugged. Suzanne Swan, an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Carolina and the study's lead author, analyzed 6,000 college students at the University of South Carolina, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Cincinnati. However, the real numbers are probably much more daunting, as there are currently, for the 2023-2024 school year, nearly 22 million students enrolled in high school or university programs.

Photo by Karl Hedin on Unsplash

I love to party—get ready with my girlfriends in anticipation of an unforgettable time together and having an amazing adventure. I wrote an article on going wild and having fun but staying safe. Check it out here. Now, however, I want to go a little bit deeper into something that happened to me in my first year of university and what I hope will never happen to you—drink spiking.

I get it. If you’re over 13 years old, the chances are that you or your friends are exposed to alcohol, drugs, and other substances. Whether you think it’s cool or has nothing to do with you, I encourage you to keep reading. It might save your life, or maybe you will save the life of a friend. Here is what happened to me…

I was around 20 years old and going to a party in the dead of winter—icy cold, the type that can freeze your eyelashes. I went to a house party with good friends and met a guy there. A friend of a friend. He seemed nice and offered me a drink. Afterward, we went out to a nightclub, as we usually did with my friends. I danced with the guy, and it was great until I felt myself blacking out a little and feeling nauseous. I started to lean on him a lot. I knew that this was not normal for me. I rarely drank, or if I did, not enough to feel like that. So I told the guy I was going to the bathroom, but instead, I stumbled to the coat check, got my jacket, and rushed outside. After all, what did I know about him! The moment I opened the door, and the cold air hit me, I blacked out.

The next thing I remember was waking up at home, in my bed, covered in puke. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest, and my head was about to explode. I got up and saw I had broken knees and blood on my head, and I had puked all over my apartment. Literally, including the walls, the ceiling…you get the idea. My phone was trashed.
I have no idea how I got home—it was about a 30-minute walk from the club. I must have walked it, passing out and falling on the side of the road many times. I had no idea how I had survived the -20 temperatures of a winter's night. The next couple of days, I felt horrible, but I got checked out, and nothing more had happened to me. I am proud of my instinct to recognize something was wrong. I was relieved that I had made it home. I could have died that night: passed out on the sidewalk and frozen to death in a little black dress and stockings in the Nordic winter, choked on my puke, or attacked on the streets. I am grateful I did not get raped that night. 

WHAT IS DRINK-SPIKING

According to Better Health, drink spiking is a deliberate act. Public perception is that it is limited to slipping drugs into an alcoholic drink; however, drink spiking can include:

• Putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink (such as water, soft drink, non-alcoholic punch or fruit juice).

• Adding extra alcohol to an alcoholic drink.

• Adding prescription or illegal drugs (such as benzodiazepines, amphetamines or GHB – also called liquid ecstasy) into an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink.

Drinks are most commonly spiked with alcohol.

Signs that your drink has been spiked

• Salty or bitter taste: some spiking substances may taste salty or bitter.

• Foggy appearance: if your drink looks foggy or cloudy when it was clear before, it may have been tampered with.

• Excessive bubbles: some drugs fizz and bubble when they react to the contents of a beverage. If your non-carbonated drink is suddenly fizzy, don't drink it.

• Sinking ice: if your ice has sunk when it was floating before, don't drink it.

• Change in color: some drugs cause a drink's color to become lighter, darker, or even change completely. If your drink has turned a different color, or even if you think it has but aren't sure, don't drink it.

WHERE DOES DRINK-SPIKING HAPPEN

According to American Addiction Centers, nearly half of drink-spiking instances happen at house parties. The second most common place is a bar. Whether you are in middle school, high school, or university, please be careful when going to house parties. Even if you think it will be just other teens from your school. My incident happened in one of my closest friends' houses!

source: American Addiction Centers

SYMPTOMS OF DRINK-SPIKING

You may not realize your drink has spiked by smelling or tasting it. The substances used to spike drinks are often colorless and odorless. Alcohol and other drugs typically used in drink-spiking incidents usually have sedative effects. This means you might feel like passing out, have trouble controlling your body, experience blackout or memory loss, and can result in becoming unconscious.

Drink spiking symptoms may include:

• feeling drunk, dizzy, or drowsy

• feeling “out of it” or drunker than expected

• mental confusion

• speech difficulties (such as slurring)

• memory loss

• loss of inhibitions

• nausea and vomiting

• breathing problems

• muscle spasms or seizures

• loss of consciousness

• an unusually long hangover

• a severe hangover when you had little or no alcohol to drink.

HOW TO AVOID GETTING DRUGGED

“First, you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. Don’t drink. Especially with people you do not know or in a public place. The more you drink or are under the influence of other substances, the more vulnerable you become. According to this study, bringing your own drink won’t deter others from drugging you. On the contrary, you are more likely to be targeted.

2. Don’t rely on your friends to take care of you. I had my best friends, and they had no idea where I had gone. You have to be able to take care of yourself!

3. If you do drink, don’t accept one from anyone. Go to the bar alone, watch the bartender make the drink, and hand it to you. If you are under 21 and getting a drink from someone else, only drink the unopened ones. Nothing out of a punch bowl. Those are just nasty, drugging or not.

4. If someone asks what you want to drink, and you say a G&T, and he brings you something else…then do not drink it. Better yet, don’t accept drinks from others. I’ll say it twice. After I was drugged, I never broke that rule, even if once in a club in Italy, a whole group of men got so offended at my refusal for champagne that I got kicked out. Ou well.

5. Buy this scrunchy.

6. Take your drink with you. Hopefully, it is in a bottle you can screw the cork back on, but even if it’s in a glass and you need to pee…take it with you to the toilet. That friend that you asked to watch your drink, well…she did not.

7. Take this seriously. It happens more than you think, and it can be highly detrimental to your mental and physical health. It was freaking horrible, and I managed to escape whatever my perpetrator had in mind. It is not ok for others to do this to us, but all we can control is our own actions.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN DRUGGED

1. Act fast. Symptoms will kick in fast, and you don’t have much time before you can’t protect yourself anymore. You will be completely defenseless. This proves my main point- never drink so much you’re wasted. I never did, and that’s what saved me. I knew how to recognize the signs. If I had been wasted drunk every weekend, I would have never known whether I was drugged or just drank too much. Take care of yourself!

2. Find a trusted friend, hopefully a sober enough friend, and explain the situation. Ask to be taken home immediately. Do not wait!

3. If you have no one at the party site, call the police and explain what happened. They will probably get there faster than your parents. But text or call your parents as well. Being grounded is not the same as getting assaulted.

4. Honestly, try your best not to be in this situation in the first place. It is not your fault if this has happened to you, as it happened to me, but the real problem of being drugged is the absolute loss of control over your own body. You can’t do much after someone has done this horrible thing to you. You will most likely be unconscious and in the will of the strangers at the party you’re at. Please be careful!

If someone has been sexually assaulted or raped from drink spiking, you can contact:

• the police on 000

• a Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA)

• Sexual Assault Crisis Line (for Victorians) Tel. 1800 806 292

• National Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Service. Tel. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

• Your local emergency department at the nearest hospital

• A doctor, sometimes called a general practitioner (GP)

You can use these support services at any time, whether or not you choose to report to the police. These services can help you move forward with your support, guidance, and coordination. If you want to report to the police, it is best to do so immediately.